Wednesday, 12 March 2008

Flying high.

Yesterday was a good day at work. Instead of sitting at my desk waiting for the phone to ring or sorting mail I got to spend the day flying over local rivers in a helicopter. I went up with a couple of our bioligists who were trying to track 9 tagged bull trout. We started off early and the Pine River was still covered in morning fog so we couldn't see the river. The helicopters shadow in the fog was surrounded by a circular rainbow. It looked so neat.We flew up the Pine River and into the Murray. I took a few pictures of Kinuseo Falls. It is very different seeing them from the air, then looking at them from the river below.Notice all the reddish brown trees at the top of the falls. Those have been killed off by the Mt. Pine Beetle. We saw a few areas where the infected trees had been cut and burned in an effort to kill off the beetles. Lots of wildlife to see. We flew over moose lying in the trees. Once the fog burnt off we went down from about 500 ft to about 200 ft above the ground so we really had an eagles eye view of the world. We saw a pack of wolves running across the river ice at one point. I only managed to get a photo of one of them though we spotted four before they headed into the trees. And finally here's a photo of the helicopter. I had a little trouble with the door. Twice it popped open when we were flying. Eek! At least the seat belt held. We put down on a gravel bar in the middle of nowhere on the banks of Wolverine Creek because one of the biologists was having a tough time with motion sickness. I'm so glad it wasn't me.